NUH Takes Over SGH’s Renal Transplant Cases

The National University Hospital (NUH) will be taking over all cadaveric kidney transplant patients from Singapore General Hospital (SGH), following the suspension of such transplants at SGH on 17 September.

The first transplant was performed in October, and currently, four of SGH patients are under the care of NUH.

NUH will be the only hospital in Singapore for such transplants, as private hospitals are not allowed to carry out living donor organ transplants. It will be arranging for extra operating theatre space and manpower to accommodate the additional patients.

The Ministry of Health stopped kidney transplants at SGH on Sept 17 after its director of medical services, Associate Professor Benjamin Ong, realised the extent of a hepatitis C outbreak there.

There were 367 people waiting for a kidney at the end of June this year. In the first half of the year, there were 12 transplants with kidneys from dead donors, and 22 living donor transplants.

As the biggest kidney transplant hospital, SGH has done hundreds of transplants over the years. As at the end of 2013, there were 677 people alive who had had their transplants done at SGH, compared with 265 for NUH and 62 for Mount Elizabeth Hospital.